This archive report was first published on 23 August 2020.
Conjoined Twins: A Family's Journey of Hope and Resilience ¶
Francis Kinyua and his wife Rukia Gacheri were overjoyed to learn they were expecting their first child in 2007. However, their joy was short-lived as they soon discovered they were having twins, one of whom was conjoined with a severely deformed parasitic twin.
On October 9, 2007, Kinyua received a call that his wife had been rushed to Kiengu Nursing Home in Maua, Meru County, for delivery. When he arrived, he was shocked to learn that his wife had given birth to twins, and the doctors told him that his wife may have missed out on attending prenatal clinics.
However, the parents were in for more shocking news. The couple was told that their newborns were not only twins but were conjoined with one severely deformed; a case of a paralytic twin. A parasitic twin is an identical twin that has stopped developing during gestation, but is physically attached to the fully developing twin.
The doctors explained that the dominant twin, named Glory Kinya, had more chances of survival than her parasytic sister, who was totally reliant on Kinya. Before Kinyua could digest all this information, the doctors told him that there was nothing more they could do to save his babies and referred them to Kenyatta National Hospital.
And that is how the long, lonely journey of searching for help for their baby started. The new mother was immediately discharged, and the family boarded a bus to Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. It was a painful journey, both physically and emotionally, as the family struggled to come to terms with their situation.
After a long torturous journey, they finally arrived at the referral hospital. The doctor told them to come back on October 15, a week later. On the appointed day, they were told to come back after seven days. For two-and-a-half months, it was back and forth because there were no beds available for admission.
Finally, a frustrated Kinyua had a mental breakdown and ran out of the hospital screaming. Someone called the media, and the story caught the attention of a doctor at Kijabe Hospital, who agreed to separate the twins for free. The separation done in December 2007 was successful, but sadly, the parasytic twin died in the process.
For the surviving twin, Kinya, it was a long and agonising journey to healing. In 2009, Gacheri, having had enough, left Kinyua to take care of the ailing child alone. Alone, Kinyua continued to take care of an infant who solely depended on him for everything, from feeding to bathing.
Young Kinya then aged two, developed a rash around the incision point and on her abdomen, which became a septic wound. Since she did not have an opening from which to pass stool, Kinya also underwent a colostomy in 2010 where they shortened her colon and removed the damaged part to create an opening in the abdominal wall.
Today, Kinya is a 12-year-old who has undergone 13 surgeries, including the most recent one performed two months ago. Despite the challenges she has faced, she still dreams big and hopes for a brighter future. Kinyua has home-schooled her and bought her revision textbooks to enable her study from home. A teacher from a local private school brings her exams, which she does and the teacher marks them.
Although she has been through so much, Kinya holds dear her dream to be a pilot. To help that vision come true, Kinyua has unsuccessfully tried to enroll his daughter in several special schools for children living with disabilities. All schools for the disabled that he approached refused to admit her and told him to take her to another school because they were not equipped to handle her unique challenges.
Conjoined twins are a rare occurrence, especially in Kenya, where there is no data on the same. According to global estimates, however, conjoined twins occur in about 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000 births. According to Dr Kimani Ndung'u, a gynaecologist at Consolata Hospital in Meru, the rare condition can be detected prenatally.
A pregnant woman should ideally have an ultrasound done early in the first trimester to identify the presence of twins and if they are sharing a placenta or not. Subsequent ultrasound scans will establish if there are organs shared by the twins. This information will help in planning for safe delivery.
